Home Gaming Dota 2’s new patch makes huge changes to the game

Dota 2’s new patch makes huge changes to the game

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Over the past five years Dota 2 has seen a number of significant updates, usually surrounding the release of a new hero. Up till now new heroes have been a port over from Dota 1 with no new heroes entering the game, that’s until now with patch 7.00 being one of the biggest yet. The patch, better known as the Monkey King patch, brings the new hero (The Monkey King), a new HUD, new pre-game, new gameplay, and more.

The Monkey King

001

Always in search of a good fight, Monkey King travels atop the trees aiming to spring from leafy cover and surprise his enemies. Calling upon an army of monkey soldiers to overwhelm opponents, this agile trickster revels in the chaos of battle, ready to slam his legendary staff down on any hopes of escape.

The Monkey King makes me almost want to reinstall Dota 2 again. His diverse gameplay, utility and actions make him look like one of the most diverse heroes to date. I honestly can’t wait to see how he is used in competitive. With him, comes some new Lore as well (including a comic).

For 500 years the mountain pressed down upon him, a stonewrought prison summoned by the elder gods to halt his childish rebellion. But, as the stories go, the Monkey King cannot die. So he waited. Until the gods came to offer a chance at absolution, he endured, and accepted their charge to protect a young mortal on an arduous journey as the price of his freedom. Released from confinement, Wukong fulfilled his oaths with honor, and came to sit amongst the gods in good favor. Soon they would find, however, that not all souls warm to divine meditation—the Monkey King craves adventure and glory, and it’s time some new stories were told.

These are his abilities, they’re testament to the excitement surrounding the patch.

  • Boundless Strike
    • Monkey King enlarges his staff and slams it against the ground, stunning enemies in a line and dealing a critical strike based on his attack.
  • Tree Dance (HE CAN CLIMB ON TREES)
    • Monkey King leaps along the treetops, looking for his next chance to spring into the fight. Provides the Primal Spring ability.
  • Primal Spring
    • From his hidden vantage in the treetops, Monkey King leaps into combat, slowing and damaging any enemies in the area of impact based on how long he channeled.
  • Jingu Mastery
    • Monkey King charges his legendary staff with power as he strikes his enemies, gaining bonus damage and lifesteal for a limited number of attacks.
  • Mischief
    • An innate power, Monkey King changes his form to deceive his enemies, using his surroundings as inspiration for the disguise.
  • Wukong’s Command
    • Monkey King blows a tuft of fur onto the battlefield, summoning a formation of monkey soldiers to join him in the fight.

A New HUD

Dota 2’s overall look got a big change as well, opting for a simple layout with the new HUD.

New hud

Some key features include:

  • Quick-read minimap option
    • Use the new simplified background option to help parse the minimap more quickly. Scale the minimap to a size of your liking. We’ve also added an indicator of which friendly structure or unit will be targeted before you teleport.
  • Top Bar Teammates Status
    • Hold ALT to display health, mana, and buyback status of teammates. You can also target abilities by clicking on an allied hero’s top-bar portrait.
  • Access settings in-game
    • No need to seek the safety of your fountain just to change your controls and options. View and adjust your settings without leaving the map.

You can also click once to upgrade spells and the mana costs of items are shown in your inventory. The push towards a new simple HUD is refreshing as the game now becomes much more attractive and appealing giving you a slightly bigger field of view. The store got a slight change as well, which I feel will aid new players, with a recommended items for your hero being highlighted as well as common items showing a stock count (on wards).

 Pre-game Overhaul

Competitive Dota 2 relies heavily on the pre-game pick and ban phase including some intense strategy which is now all available from the new pre-game screen. Some of the old functions are still available, like the filters during the pick phase to help you select what your teams needs, and Valve have added a few more filters.

pre-game

There’s aslo a new hero spotlight pop-up when clicking on a hero which will display their strengths and weaknesses (as seen above with the Monkey King). The “hero suggestion” tab is also a great addition for pub play allowing you to suggest heroes needed for the team, which might make the game a little bit easier.

The biggest change to the pre-game, for me, is the new 30 second strategy phase which allows competitive teams to make use of the strategy map and purchase their pre-game items before entering the game and getting into position. This addition is fantastic for those early engagements and smoke gangs giving teams an equal edge when starting off.

New Gameplay

This is perhaps the biggest change in the latest patch. Previously in Dota 2, when you reached certain levels you’d put level up stats which increased your heroes strength, agility, or intelligence. Dota 2’s new talent tree means on certain levels you’d be able to pick up a talent for that specific hero dictated by the matchup, pace of the game, or current scenario you find yourself in. This is very similar to the talent selection in Heroes of The Storm, but a little bit different.

At levels 10, 15, 20, and 25 you can select a new talent, as shown below.

talent tree

Additional updates

The final big addition, for me, are the “community-authored bots” coming to 7.00.

Programmers, scripters, and mad scientists rejoice! You can now create your own Dota bots using a brand new scripting API. Upload your bots to the Workshop for others to download and play. Then, enjoy watching as your creations slowly take over the Dota universe.

This is quite an interesting addition as it allows players and scripters to mess around with the bots creating extremely difficult opponents for those hungry for a challenge. It will be interesting to see what bots are created.

Last Updated: December 12, 2016

5 Comments

  1. Lu

    December 12, 2016 at 13:11

    This should be fun. Although I’m gonna get blasted back to Potato Bracket.

    Reply

    • Button

      December 12, 2016 at 13:22

      Sad day for me, I agree…

      Reply

      • Lu

        December 12, 2016 at 13:27

        I rate give it a few weeks and umpteen patches, and the game will be far better for it.

        Reply

  2. Admiral Chief Argonian

    December 12, 2016 at 14:00

    SALT SIMULATOR

    Reply

    • Lu

      December 12, 2016 at 14:34

      The mid to higher brackets are actually quite civil these days.

      Reply

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